Could someone please confirm IR receiver?

[Jay Wilson]

The PCB has a stereo jack to connect the IR receiver. There are several types of receivers with jacks already on the market but the connections are different and some use 5V others 12V. I dismantled a Xantech one (for which I did not have the specs) and it was a 12v one. The +5V pin on the actual receiver had a series resistor of 1K and a zener diode of 5.1V to convert +12 to +5V.



I read this in the UIRT2 guide and am a bit confused. Are we saying that the Xantech will or will not work? It says it is 12v, but that on the receiver it converted to 5v...are we talking about the original Xantech receiver or the UIRT receiver?

Thanks!

[windtrader]

Jay,

This sounds like it came from the original build notes. Have a read of the new guide referenced in this thread
http://www.girder.nl/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=2189

I am no electronics expert but I think that you can make pretty much any emitter or receiver work. However, you will need to do the research to establish what the proper values for resistors should be to get things in range.

Unless you plan to build a UIRT2 from scratch and reuse some existing parts, I would get a kit or assembled unit which is proven to work. You can easily add extra emitters using the instructions.

Don

[Jay Wilson]

Thanks Don. I did build it from scratch, and the only question I had left was theis one. Now I'll have to read and double check :) If it wo't work, maybe I'll just order one instead of building the next one myself. Thanks for the tip!

BTW, After looking, that is the thread I got the quote from. It referenced back to the "main page" which had the quote. So....

[windtrader]

Jay,

Would you mind finding that text in the guide and refreshing the page? If it is still there, please post the URL. That stuff should not be in the guide.

Don

[Jay Wilson]

Sure Don, Here it is. I went to the UIRT forum, then to the page listed in the "complete guide" thread, then to product details. The second paragraph is what I listed as a quote above.

http://www.fukushima.us/uirt2/UIRT2B-Details.htm#Features

[Luc]

Jay,

sorry for the late reply.

A Xantech uses 12V and will not work on the uirt2, if you have one you could use it but will have to remove that resistor and zener and also change the jack connections.
Might just be easier to use a new one.

[Jay Wilson]

Thanks Luc,
I do have one...I have a bunch of them actually. Some in nice looking housings which is why I wanted to use them. I'm not sure I could make one as nice. I was worried about the 12v more than anything. When you say remove the resistor and diode...do you mean ramove entirely or replace with a different value? Also, the jack connections I could change on wither end...probably within the housing might be easier...haven't looked. I was just now connecting the UIRT2 to my PC to try the programming. My final order of parts (the 2 ICs) came in yesterday.

[Luc]

Jay,

you have to remove the resistor and zener completely, in my case they were connected directly on the receiver pins inside the molding on the cable and receiver. I had to cut away the molding very carefully as to not break off the receiver pins. I'm not sure if it will be done the same way in your "nice looking" ones.
If you do it like this then you can change the wiring here to match the jack pinout.

[Jay Wilson]

Hey Luc,
Thanks for the follow up. Here is what I have decided to try. I have some Xantech receivers that do not have a plug on them. They are a 3-wire with the ends stripped. What I am going to do is use a barrier strip to conenct ground and signal to the UIRT, and I will use the 12v power from inside the PC to power the receiver. This will also allow me to configure the "rewiring" as needed for the design.

Xantech recommends adding 12v power supplies to a system when there are a number of devices so as not to pull down a single power supply. I will post my results.

Right now I'm still trying to program the thing. I think I had a bad solder bridge so I redid everything late Saturday night. Hopefully tonight I will be ready to try again.

[Promixis]

Just wondering if you were successful in connecting the uirt to the xantech distribution system - I would really like to be able to do the same thing.

Mike

[Jay Wilson]

I should find out tonight. I wasn't able to program the UIRT until just the other day, and today I got my crystal. So...I will attempt it either tonight or tomorrow. I will let you know!